Freeze/thaw spring soil-time to broadcast some clover seed!!

[tcook8296]

12 hours ago, mikmaze said:

which clovers did you get from merrit?    anything else from them I should look into? you know me, 25 acres or so of PLOTS that all need a little something special.

25 acres of plots I would be doing a majority of corn and beans. Strips of rye, wheat and clover and a few acres of turnips and radishes

My clover seed arrived today

[tcook8296]

Clover and Alfalfa. They hit it all year long

[mikmaze]

corn needs to much fert for my wallet, I do have a dedicated spot that is getting beans, and turnips will be added in to clovers at las mow of the year.   rye will go down in the big field after the farmer takes off his corn, if early enough and will be in addition to the other acreage. the acreage of plots are split up into about 15 sub plots, they are about as big as I can get em, without getting a dozer.    all freed up from areas that were overgrown, but manageable by a maniac with a chainsaw, and a 2 wheel drive tractor.   I see yuou got Gallant as well, ordered my 50 lb bag today, should be here by Saturday.   Be good to see how yours does in a few months

[tcook8296]

6 hours ago, mikmaze said:

corn needs to much fert for my wallet, I do have a dedicated spot that is getting beans, and turnips will be added in to clovers at las mow of the year.   rye will go down in the big field after the farmer takes off his corn, if early enough and will be in addition to the other acreage. the acreage of plots are split up into about 15 sub plots, they are about as big as I can get em, without getting a dozer.    all freed up from areas that were overgrown, but manageable by a maniac with a chainsaw, and a 2 wheel drive tractor.   I see yuou got Gallant as well, ordered my 50 lb bag today, should be here by Saturday.   Be good to see how yours does in a few months

I would see if you can work something out with the farmer to leave some crop standing. I plant beans in my plot for the summer but with a high deer density , they never make it to canopy. I planted them heavy too. I ran about 10 bags thru my drill on 4 acres. 

As far as big plots go that I plant, I learned the hard way on my ground in Illinois to plant strips of food  instead of fields. 

The strips of clover, alfalfa, wheat and rye on field edges keep deer moving when they are feeding and more importantly within bow range. Big fields of food, you cant shoot the far sides thats where the deer are going to stand and feed. 

The turnips and radishes will fill the remainder of the plot, they produce a huge amount of forage on the tops early in the season and then once gun season rolls around they are on the bulbs. I plant a mix from merit in late August and they are still eating them now. It took a few years for them to figure them out but they absolutely killed them this year. Hunting season is over now and I still have some turnips in the field. 

In Illinois, I didnt even find a sign of a turnip last weekend. 

Their were a bunch there in November. 

I usually buy a few different types of clover and make my own mix. Parts of my field tends to get wet very easy, so I like the Alsike clover in my mix. 

Hopefully the lime truck gets over to my place soon. I ordered 6 tons of lime   

I may just try the corn in Illinois this year and see what happens

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by tcook8296

[tcook8296]

Perfect example of a strip of clovers, wheat and rye. The rest of the field is turnips. 

All those deer walking the edge are in bow range. 

[mikmaze]

I went to a galagher style e fence to protect my beans, long term investment on the fence, for a yearly use, took it down last year about a month before bow season and the deer couldn't get enough of it, but the beans could keep going.  just as the beans were about to yellow, I broadcast wr into the plot so I had a winter draw.   The beans were RR and sprayed them once for a nice stand.   I interspersed some pumpkins but wham did the deer hit them as soon as the fence was down, ate the plants to the dirt.   going to have to keep a bit of fence up if I want to see a pumpkin this year.

[megavites]

3 hours ago, tcook8296 said:

Perfect example of a strip of clovers, wheat and rye. The rest of the field is turnips. 

All those deer walking the edge are in bow range. 

 

Tom,

can't figure out why my herd left the Turnips and radish this yr. 2yrs ago they pulled them out of the ground. Didn't plant them last yr.

I'm going to frost seed w/clover and try the Lickcreek method w/Oats, cereal rye, forage peas and radish in Aug.

[tcook8296]

2 hours ago, megavites said:

Tom,

can't figure out why my herd left the Turnips and radish this yr. 2yrs ago they pulled them out of the ground. Didn't plant them last yr.

I'm going to frost seed w/clover and try the Lickcreek method w/Oats, cereal rye, forage peas and radish in Aug.

All depends on the food sources around you.

They may have a tastier option. 

I would keep planting them though. It took a few seasons before they started hitting them hard.  We had a very mild winter with no snow at least in my area. 

If we get a cold snap with some deep snow that sticks around for awhile they will be destroying your turnips. 

I plant them for late season. Thats my favorite time to attract and hold deer on my property. 

From what I observed on my farm in NJ this year and I get the opportunity to watch almost every evening, they hit the clover all year. The soybeans are candy and they wipe them out. 

Once all the crops are harvested by me they hit the wheat 1st then turnip tops and rye. All winter they are eating wheat rye clover and bulbs from the turnips and radishes. 

Of course they love their corn and apples that magically appear. 

I have some honeysuckle, crabapples, native persimmons and browse from hingecuts they browse whenever given the opportunity. 

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by tcook8296

[mikmaze]

put down about 9 lbs of clover from the fall order today, got home to find my merrit seed order on my porch! psyched, will get about 70 % of that down this weekend, the other 30% is for areas I ned to mow and spray till dead before I risk the clover to the field of foxtail.

[tcook8296]

Got mine down yesterday 

[mikmaze]

50 lbs Gallant arrived, and put it down yesterday, boy that stuff doesn't go as far as ya hope.

Edited March 8, 2020 by mikmaze

[electric10162]

Ordered from Merit today. Soybeans, chicory, and Appin Turnips. 

[tcook8296]

23 hours ago, mikmaze said:

50 lbs Gallant arrived, and put it down yesterday, boy that stuff doesn't go as far as ya hope.

Frost seeding red clover is 4 to 8 lbs an acre. 

Even on the heavy side thats 6 acres. Thats a lot of clover

[Livesintrees]

5 hours ago, tcook8296 said:

Frost seeding red clover is 4 to 8 lbs an acre. 

Even on the heavy side thats 6 acres. Thats a lot of clover

Waaaaay heavy 

[mikmaze]

well, it was coated seed, I swear they pic the heaviest coating to make the bag weight......       Got on it today with my snapper 22 hp, 50 inch cut and mowed back an acre of where the foxtail took over to allow for better gly contact once it gets going. went to mow a second area and electrical gremlin  stopped me. dam safety interupts , gotta re wire and cut em out of the loop.

 

below is the map of the property I manage, almost 300 acres toatal,  mix of mc mansions on one side, borders highway with marm on another, third is a sanctuary.   colored outlines are the plots, big brown patch in upper right corner is a farmers field where he does corn, every dang year.  If he gets it off quick enough I try to get about 5 acres of winter rye in, giving me about 10% plot to land ratio.